A narrow escape

So I'd nearly buckled..

The temptation was too strong..

I was looking at being able to buy the original, i.e. non Special Edition, versions of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD, just as I saw them in the cinema's in 1978, and at a rather nice price of £13.99 from amazon.

Okay, okay so I had to get the Special Editions again in order to get them, but it seemed worth it to have the versions where:

- Han shoots Greedo first.
- You get the original Ewok song at the end of Return of the Jedi.
- There are no gratuitous Boba Fett shots on Jabba's palace.
- Sebastian Shaw still turns up as Anakin at the end of the original trilogy.

So my finger hovered over the "Pre-order Now" button..

So tempted..

But then, and I don't know what possessed me, I scanned down and read the customer reviews.

It would appear that George Lucas is once again taking the piss. The upcoming DVDs of the original original trilogy (how stupid does that sound?) will not be anamorphic widescreen. They're going to be lousy letterbox transfers. What this means is that if you have a nice widescreen TV the picture will occupy about a third of that screen and will not have any additional resolution. In short it will look shit. All the details are here, by the way

I've given up ranting about Lucas, I only post this to warn anyone who a) might be considering buying these discs or b) knows someone who might be considering purchasing these discs.

In short.. DO NOT BUY THESE DISCS - you can buy similar DVDs (taken from a Laserdisc source and non-anamorphic) from eBay at a fraction of the price and will not be lining the pocket of the beardy bastard any more.

George Lucas, eh? What a total cunt.